Here is the full list of charges that Rollins says will not be prosecuted ("unless supervisor permission is obtained")--notice that it includes resisting arrest(!):
- Trespassing
- Shoplifting (including offenses that are essentially shoplifting but charged as larceny)
- Larceny under $250
- Disorderly conduct
- Disturbing the peace
- Receiving stolen property
- Minor driving offenses, including operating with a suspend or revoked license
- Breaking and entering — where it is into a vacant property or where it is for the purpose of sleeping or seeking refuge from the cold and there is no actual damage to property
- Wanton or malicious destruction of property
- Threats – excluding domestic violence
- Minor in possession of alcohol
- Drug possession
- Drug possession with intent to distribute
- A stand alone resisting arrest charge, i.e. cases where a person is charged with resisting arrest and that is the only charge
- A resisting arrest charge combined with only charges that all fall under the list of charges to decline to prosecute, e.g. resisting arrest charge combined only with a trespassing charge
Of course you fail to post the
REST of her memo, which includes how these cases are to be handled in lieu of prosecution:
Instead of prosecuting, these cases should be (1) outright dismissed prior to arraignment or (2) where appropriate, diverted and treated as a civil infraction for which community service is satisfactory, restitution is satisfactory or engagement with appropriate community-based no-cost programming, job training or schooling is satisfactory. In the exceptional circumstances where prosecution of one of these charges is warranted, the line DA must first seek permission from his or her supervisor.
Those who would be charged are not getting off scott free. They're having to make resitution and do community service work as an alternative to charges being filed, but please, don't let facts get in the way of your moral outrage you stupid shits.
You're kidding? They have to do the dreaded community service work and/or make restitution? That will stop any wanna-be criminal right in their tracks. Look for crime to decrease considerably in the next year. The streets will once again be safe to walk at night.
So, in other words, you want to charge people with every petty crime out there, criminalize them early, for shoplifting, vandalism, and other stupid shit that kids get up to, like shoplifting. This is what will happen:
It will cost
YOU the dumbass taxpayers thousands of dollars to process the paperwork of filing charges these petty charges, and to take them before the courts. You pay an overcrowded "zero tolerance" legal system to process these charges, and the kid will initially get a fine, be made to pay resitution and do community service work. But it will have cost the taxpayers thousands to dollars to get that guilty plea. This DA is by-passing the legal system and getting the restitution to the property owners, and a lesson to the kids, without the expense to the taxpayers, so yes, that keeps yours streets just as safe as they are now.
This way, this kid will have not have a criminal record, which will affect his job prospects, and how he will be treated in the community. And you not will out the cost of the police, the court workers, the judges, the legal aid attorneys, which even for petty charges like shoplifting, with multiple appearances, court appointed attorneys, judges, and paperwork, runs into thousands of dollars per charge. Judges, lawyers, law clerks and court staff don't work for free, and it's YOU the taxpayers who are paying their salaries.
The kid ends up with the same punishment, but not the stigma of a criminal record. Americans have the highest rate of incareration in the world, and the highest rates of crime. It costs upwards of $70,000 a year to keep someone in jail, and every year there are more and more people in your jails. What you're currently doing is NOT WORKING, in terms of keeping your streets safe since you all need to be armed to the teeth to protect your life and property at all times and to keep yourselves safe.
These are the breaks that punk ass white kids in rural areas get ALL OF THE TIME. I know because I grew up amongst those punk ass rural kids. Jobs with the country road crews always go to some local politician's n'eer do well nephew, who's too broke to farm, and too useless to get a real job.
